Unsung History24 Okt 2022

The 1966 Division Street Uprising & the Puerto Rican community in Chicago

In 1966, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley declared that the first week of June would be known as “Puerto Rican Week,” culminating in the first Puerto Rican Parade, to honor the growing Puerto Rican population in the city. After the parade, while people were still celebrating, police shot a Puerto Rican man in the leg, following a pattern of police violence against the Puerto Rican community, which sparked a three-day uprising in the Humboldt Park neighborhood that changed Puerto Rican history in Chicago.

Joining me to help us understand the Puerto Rican community in Chicago both before and after the Division Street uprising is Dr. Mirelsie Velázquez, an associate professor of education at the University of Oklahoma and author of Puerto Rican Chicago: Schooling the City, 1940-1977.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Quiero Vivir en Puerto Rico,” performed by Marta Romero and Anibal Herrero y Su Orquesta, and written by Guillermo Venegas (Hijo). The audio is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive.

The episode image is “June 12 1966: Smoke rises from burning squad car as a crowd surrounds it during riots in Humboldt Park,” from the 1960s: Days of Rage website.

Additional Sources:

“It Was a Rebellion: Chicago’s Puerto Rican Community in 1966,” Chicago History Museum, via Google Arts & Culture.
“Chicago's 1966 Division Street Riot,” by Daniel Hautzinger, WTTW, September 2, 2020.
"Recollections: 1966 Division Street Riot," by Mervin Méndez, Diálogo: Vol. 2 (1997): No. 1 , Article 6.
“Puerto Ricans Riots: Chicago 1966,” Center for Puerto Rican Studies, CUNY Hunter.
“Spanish-American War,” History.com
“1917: Jones-Shafroth Act,” Library of Congress.

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